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Neal Gittleman, Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, Dayton

The 2013–2014 season is Neal Gittleman’s 19th year as conductor of the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra (DPO). Gittleman has led the orchestra to new levels of artistic achievement and increasing acclaim throughout the country. American Record Guide magazine has praised the orchestra’s performance as has the Cincinnati Enquirer, which called the DPO “a precise, glowing machine.” During his tenure, the orchestra has received nine American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) awards from the League of American Orchestras for adventurous programming.

Before coming to Dayton, Gittleman was assistant conductor of the Oregon Symphony, associate conductor of the Syracuse Symphony, and music director of the Marion Philharmonic in Indiana. He also served ten seasons with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, first as associate conductor and then as resident conductor. Gittleman has guest conducted many of the country’s leading orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago, San Francisco, Minnesota, Phoenix, Indianapolis, San Antonio, and Jacksonville symphony orchestras and the Buff alo Philharmonic. He has also conducted orchestras in Germany, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Japan, Canada and Mexico. Son of an English professor and a public school music teacher, Neal is a native of Brooklyn, New York. He graduated from Yale University in 1975. He studied with Nadia Boulanger and Annette Dieudonné in Paris, with Hugh Ross at the Manhattan School of Music and with Charles Bruck at both the Pierre Monteux School and the Hartt School of Music.

At home in the pit as well as on stage, Gittleman has led productions for Dayton Opera, Dayton Ballet, the Human Race Theatre Company, Syracuse Opera Company, Hartt Opera Theater, and for Milwaukee’s renowned Skylight Opera Theatre. When not on the podium, Neal is an avid player of golf, squash and t'ai chi ch'uan and does yoga, too. He and his wife, Lisa Fry, have been Dayton residents since 1997.

Neal Gittleman video tribute (6:50 minutes)